The History of the Twentieth Century

Adolf Hitler was already effectively dictator of Germany, but in the first 18 months, he moved to tighten his grip, even going so far as to murder his own supporters in the SA and elsewhere.

Even before Hitler and the Nazis took power, it was an open secret that Germany was enlarging its military beyond what the Treaty of Versailles allowed, leading to jittery nerves in France and Britain.

In this episode, we finish up a couple of New Deal programs we didn't get to talk about last time, and examine the Roosevelt Administration's efforts to restore confidence in Wall Street and in a dollar no longer backed by gold.

Franklin Roosevelt's administration began with a bang.

In the four-month period between Roosevelt's election and his inauguration, the American economy went from bad to worse.

New York Governor Franklin Roosevelt was the wide favorite for the 1932 Democratic Presidential nomination, while Herbert Hoover's popularity, like the US economy, was declining every month.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt, scion of two old and wealthy New York families, former Assistant Secretary of the Navy and candidate for Vice President of the United States, had a bright future ahead of him. Then he came down with polio.

Rutherford's hypothetical neutron was proved to exist in 1932. Atomic physics in the 1930s was regularly producing dramatic--and disturbing--new results.

The British economy hadn't fully bounced back from the war when the Depression hit, eventually forcing Britain off the gold standard once again.

The Indian National Congress had declared independence, but waited for Gandhi to propose a strategy for resisting British rule. Gandhi came up with a characteristically unusual suggestion.

Stalin claimed the mantle of successor to Lenin and made the claim stick. He would go on to gain a degree of power in the USSR far greater than anything Lenin ever held, or even dreamed of.

Strangely, although motion pictures and sound recording were invented around the same time, it took thirty years before the technology to link them came together. Sound changed motion pictures, not always for the better.

Fascist governments are run on the views of the fascist leader, more than a written ideology. And what does the leader want? At home, to celebrate "our" superior culture; abroad, war.

In this second of a three-part series on fascism, we examine the beliefs that form the foundation of fascism.

Fascism is the twentieth century's unique contribution to political ideology. In this first of a three-part series, we examine its roots.

Hitler became chancellor of a mostly-not-Nazi cabinet. But he also demanded yet another election and worked hard to create a sense of crisis that would encourage more votes for Nazis.

Just when it seemed the National Socialist movement was beginning to lose steam, other right-wing parties join the Nazis in a coalition, thinking to use the movement for their own purposes.

Germany held four national elections in 1932, and a number of state elections besides. The NSDAP, the Nazi Party did quite well, but fell short every time. By the end of the year, there were signs the Party was losing steam.

With the 1930 German federal election, the Nazi party went from the fringes to status as one of Germany's major political parties. But that's not the same as participating in government.

In the late Twenties, Germany saw its Communist and National Socialist parties grow in popularity, especially the latter. Adolf Hitler became the unlikely leader of the right wing in Germany, while the Communists dismissed the Nazis as a temporary obstacle.

The Japanese occupation of Manchuria was the first real test of the League of Nations, as this was exactly the kind of aggressive act the League was created to prevent. Unfortunately, the League failed the test.

Ever since the eighth planet, Neptune, was discovered in 1846, some astronomers searched for a hypothetical ninth planet. Clyde Tombaugh discovered the ninth planet in 1930. Or did he?

Japan had a rough time of it in the 1920s, between the global economic shocks and a devastating 1923 earthquake. Japanese military commanders saw control of Manchuria as key to Japan's economic independence, and they weren't about to let the politicians in Tokyo interfere.

Chiang Kai-shek unified China, more or less, but survival of the Nationalist government was threatened by warlords, the Japanese, and the Communists. Of these threats, Chiang regarded the Communists as the greatest.

The economic bad news had been centered in the United States, but in 1931, bank failures began multiplying in Europe, leading to the Great Depression.